The owner of a takeaway restaurant and two other men have been sentenced for assaulting an ex-employee in the middle of the night.

Abul Azad, who runs and lives at the Roopnogar restaurant in Plymouth's Wolseley Road, Shahedul Bhuyia, 53, and Abul Hannan, 41, of Leeds, appeared at Truro Crown Court on Wednesday, July 31, for their sentencing.

On December 16, 2016, the trio drove from Plymouth to Truro in the early hours of the morning, went into the room of former Roopnogar employee Abdul Basit and assaulted him, leaving him with a broken jaw among other injuries.

A jury convicted them of grievous bodily harm last week.

Addressing Judge Simon Carr, the defense argued that the three men have 'lost a great deal already' since they were charged in 2016.

The defence team said about Hannan potentially being sent to jail : "It is going to impact his mother who thinks that what he needs is to get married and settled down. A perspective bride isn't gojng to look at that very favourably.

"He has lost a great deal already. He's at low risk of reoffending. He has got to work out what to do next with his life."

Sentencing the trio, Judge Carr said that there is no doubt that the victim in the case owned them money that was borrowed and that police took no action.

He said that it was ‘one of the few truthful things’ the group had told the court.

Abul Azad

“Therefore you sought community resolution,” he said. “I accept entirely that there is a well-established practice in the Bangladeshi community where people have meetings with those respected by the community to get to the bottom of disputes.

Read More

“Although I think that was at the back of your mind that day, the fact that you chose to go to see him at 2am that day, and more, that you did not tell him that you were coming means that there was more to that.”

He added that, although he agrees with the jury that the three men had no intention to physically harm the victim before they saw him, they did intend to bully him.

Shahedul Bhuyia

He described how the victim remembered hearing ‘Get the money any way you can’ before being assaulted.

Read More

“You have had these allegations hanging over you for almost three years.

“I accept that this has had a very real effect upon you.

Ganges in Truro where Mr Basit was attacked

“It is that punishment which allows me to suspend what would have otherwise been an immediate custodial sentence.”

Join our Cornwall's Court Insider Facebook group

We've set up a dedicated Facebook group for our court and crime content - Cornwall's Court Insider.

It's the place to find a wide range of crime related coverage, including sentencings, plea hearings, ongoing trials, crimes that shocked Cornwall through the years, crime stats and more besides.

The content will primarily relate to hearings at Truro Crown Court, Truro Magistrates' Court and Bodmin Magistrates' Court but every now and then we will publish police appeals or pull in content from further afield with links to Cornwall.